On July 24 we are going to perform Bach cantata BWV 105 and the opening Sinfonia of cantata BWV 169 – in effect, an organ concerto movement – for Bach Vespers. This is a special Bach Vespers as it comes within the 21st St. Anne’s International Bach Festival, the festival of Bach’s music run throughout July by Music at Hill. We’re delighted to welcome Sweelinck Ensemble director Martin Knizia back to play at this event as organ soloist.

The gospel reading on which the cantata loosely reflects concerns the parable of the Unjust Steward, a broker who manipulates his master’s debts to save his job.  Stephen Melton’s 1997 sculpture ‘LIFFE Trader’ (the image above, currently on show at the Guildhall Art Gallery) illustrates the equivocation of this story through the romanticism of mid 1980s to mid 1990s  ‘Open Outcry’ floor traders.